I looked at the
documents from the old feline human project. They were what we
needed. Notes on feelings, diaries, the resistance and eventually
subjection of the feline human half-breeds, it was perfect. It
showed exactly what the overarching government was doing with the
children it took for "re-education." The sound of footsteps
broke through my concentration. I snatched out the chip, along with
its precious contents. I sprinted down the alley silently; the
abandoned base was still patrolled, damn. The knife was already
loose in the oiled leather sheath. They never checked for old style
weapons any more. I saw the shift in the rigid stance of the guard
and heard the mental Something in Quadrant B. Going to Check I
knew if I did not move now I would be screwed. I flashed by the old
gate into the information room, ignoring the pounding of my heart and
the shifting of my tattoos under my shield.

I pulled myself into a
tight corner that would disguise my barely visible thermal and
physical appearance. I opened one of my dog tags and put the chip
inside while sliding one dagger out of my shoe, my ankle high poly
fiber moccasins a perfect hiding place, while the other two slid
neatly in my belt, all suited for throwing. I scaled the wall to the
crumbling roof, letting the rubble conceal my crouching form. The
marching feet passed and I crouched, letting the feel of the soft
deer skin leather calm me. The mutations they had been unable to
suppress that had been my parents' bane were now helping to bring
down what they had professed that I obey. The leather deflected the
radar they used on normal flights and I was thankful as I made my way
to the main gate, and my horse, for my escape.

* **

I awoke from another
one of my nightmares. My sister's dying words still rang in my
ears as I threw the sheets; they stuck to me like the sheets stuck to
my perspiration soaked chest. Don't let them get you. Always
guard all parts of you; mind and body, Aaron, don't let them take
you… They had haunted me through all the memory-erasing pills;
even let me fight the memory erasing. I was probably the only person
alive who had a complete account of their entire life, misfortune
included. I pulled on my grey school uniform, the almost scaly
feeling making me shudder. I ran a fifty-year-old comb through my
hair after the bacteria powder had cleaned me, stuff that people
mixed with crack to give it spice.

I
pulled a fading green canvas cap over the four-inch mop. It was one
of my last pieces of my sister. I got out her matching green canvas
shoulder bag and put all my prized possessions in it so they would
not be cleaned up as trash. The comb, a set of blank dog tags, my
box of charcoal, my pad of paper with all my predictions, memories
and drawings, and one set of elicit clothing. My many pocketed,
loose khaki shorts, worn down corduroys, white Kilroy Was Here tee
shirt, dark blue Snoopy "Flying Ace" hooded sweatshirt, brown
soft leather jacket, and rubber soled running shoes had taken me
years to collect and were there for future use, for when I escaped.

I looked at my
sister's quartz faced pocket watch; I had time for another theft.
I scaled my family heirloom shelves, looking for one item. I finally
spotted it near the back, the value of the simple item vastly
underestimated. The clean switchblade was now one of the most
deadly weapons on the deserted streets. The guards had stopped
scanning for them in bags, so here was my final piece of equipment.
I did not even wince as the sting shield hit my gloved hand, the felt
was too thick, and the leather patches on the old riding gloves were
utterly impervious.

The switchblade was
lighter than the sheath knife I had in my boot for last defense, so I
could hide it in my sleeve. I slid down the pole, snatching up
fourteen protein cubes as I passed, on for every one of the days that
it would take me to find the Outcasts, and my only hope of rebellion.
My sister, Jerry, had been summoned for re-education after she had
gotten a tattoo with a strange symbol put on the back of her neck.
She had run to the lower city and come back chased by the cyborg
police who were the cities law enforcers. She had shot one with a
strange gun that shot blue lasers, and then she had been peppered
with the distinctive lethal darts the cyborgs were famous for. I had
run to her side and she had died in my arms before being loaded into
a cart to go to who knows where. To avenge her was my greatest drive
in my slow undermining of my parents control over me.

After Jerry's death,
my mother had gone insane and had to be carted off to "upper town",
or the institution that was on the upper floors of buildings. My dad
did not take both disappearances well. He had long since stopped
going to work and he sat in a drunken stupor, bribing people for
their alcohol rations so he could keep drinking after ours was gone.
I had sold many of our things for money that I now had saved in a
pocket of my bag, spending only on things I knew I would need. The
one thing I had splurged on was my Karelian Bear dog, Scotch, who was
my companion everywhere. Claiming that I needed an animal to deal
with my grief, I had paid extra to get my courageous Scotch.

She trotted up to me
as I entered my kitchen. I considered the apartment mine as my
father only used one room. The light padding of her paws on the tile
announced her arrival. She was a beautiful dog, with her black fur,
white tipped ears and one paw and curling tail. I popped one of the
protein cubes into my mouth and grabbed a bag of dried dog food for
Scotch cause I could not leave her to fend for herself, not with her
hunting instinct and my drunken dad. I had trained her so she would
walk next to me without a leash because I did not want to waste my
money on something I could do without. As I walked out the door I
slid off my microchip bracelet and Scotch's collar, both criminal
offenses. I knew that I needed to risk being caught without it to
get to the lower city edge.

I glided through the
crowds on the hover-walks, Scotch as silent as a ghost by my side. I
was also skipping school, which could get me an escort if I was
caught, but on top of taking off my microchips, I was screwed. I
made it through the fifth sector grid and to the lower city. I
ducked into an alley between two real brick buildings once I was in
the slums of the lower city. Here I took off my standard edition
clothing and put on my salvaged clothing. The weather was too hot
for the corduroys but too cold for just Kilroy, so I put on Flying
Ace Snoopy over Kilroy. Many people did not understand why I had
given my illicit clothing code names; most of those were the people
who did not know what it was I was talking about.

I put the standard
issue bland grey clothing in the first trash fire I saw; down here
they did not have recyclers or incinerators so they used the old
fashioned method, even if they could get arrested and detained for
doing it. I looked around as I walked to the edge and thought about
the world I lived in. The old country divisions had broken down, but
with them went all individuality. People were born into a class and
a job, which is where they would stay for the rest of their lives.
Music, art, culture, and religion these were things we learned about
in history class that were made as dry as the speeches at the
Planetary Congress.

We were expected to
drop anything we might be interested in for the good of the society.
We could not do anything out of the ordinary, no boy could like
drawing and no girl could be good at sports. This posed a real for
the gays and lesbians. I smiled as I remembered my friend, Z. He
called himself that because his parents had named him Elizabeth.
People were issued names for their children in some semblance of
order, no matter their sex. That was how my sister got Jerry and Z
got Elizabeth. Z was gay. Not overtly, but he never flirted and he
always went to our "social trips" with a group of his guy
friends. We were fourteen when the workers walked into a math lesson
and took him. They went out in the hall and we could hear voices
until Z charged back in and impaled himself on the teacher's
pointer, escaping the workers by killing himself.

Relationships were
forbidden unless the teacher and a psychologist approved them, so I
had never even tried to date. The possibility had been opened up to
me as a twelve year old. For a while I had eyed a girl in my class.
Emma was a beautiful Asian with moss green eyes, smooth tan skin and
long silky black hair. She had been classified as immensely
intelligent and she had been given a little tabby cat to help her to
get even smarter. She had slowly turned away under the influence of
her brother, who had witnessed his father's murder and, like me,
had thought his way out of the memory modifications. Emma had
collected many of the same things I had, but she also carried a
computer with her everywhere. One day she had been typing in class
and the workers came to get her. Instead of talking to them, she
threw herself out the window and escaped through the city with her
cat.

As I brooded over
these things, Scotch nudged my hand with her wet, black nose. I
smiled as scratched her ears to reassure her that I was all right.
We finally reached the edge, the beginning of The Wild. Each city
had a set box it could expand to before it had to start sending
inhabitants to cities that were under populated, or they had to give
a section of the city "the finger" and blow it up with contained
explosives so they could rebuild it. Anywhere around the cities hat
was not populated was dubbed the Wild. This was where the Outsiders
and gangs like them made their refuge. The Wild was where every kind
of natural environment was put. Each city chose one, and that was
where they were placed.

I faced the enormous
pine trees that made their accent up the huge peeks of the
surrounding mountains. I pulled a crumpled piece of paper covered in
my scribblings out of my pocket. It was a steadily composed list of
every known animal that ran free in mountains surrounding the city.
I looked down at Scotch, who met my eyes with an expression that was
clear to me. What are we waiting for? I can hunt in there! I
smiled at her and we stepped away from all that we had known, toward
the Outsiders.

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